still sick

Well, I woke up this morning with less of a stuffy nose but still not great. Fever broke during the night and I am feeling a bit better. However, it is a led practice today, being Friday, and I knew that there was no way I had the energy to get through the whole thing. If it was Mysore practice then there is the opportunity to finish early if you absolutely must but in a led class, no way. You would have to stand up in front of everyone and walk out. No way was I going to risk being that conspicuous. So I opted to stay home and do my own practice. It is a shame really to miss practice because I just don't like doing it and it is a moon day on Sunday so that means 4 days out of the shala. Also Wednesday is Ganesh Festival and there is no practice there then either. I will practice at home though. No reason to miss really.

I just wish that this damn cold/flu would go away. I drank loads of juice and have eaten tonnes of healthy stuff to no avail. I am still sick. YUCK.

I went to a nice dinner at Santosha last night. T, the proprieter, is a chef and I have been told that he is a wonderful cook. SO I was really looking forward to dinner. It was really a waste for me though because I could taste nothing. I should have skipped it but I had put my name on a list and they had cooked for me so I felt that I should still go. I only had some soup and some stir fried veggies but it was all so tastless because of my cold. I will go back again as they do the dinners rather frequently. Maybe then I will actually be able to taste something.

Certainly, a disappointing few days on my end.

Level 2 Sanskrit starts tomorrow. Looking forward to that.

Ciao!

Sick!

Yes, it is true. I am sick. I am trying to feign a fever which would get me out of practice tomorrow. Maybe I will just not go. I have only missed one day in the last 2 months. We will see how i feel in the AM. I drank a ton of OJ today. I hope that will help.

Other things I am pondering. I miss Jeff. A LOT. I am in happy yoga land but wow it is difficult to be away for so long. Especially when there are so many fun things to discuss, like wedding stuff. So much fun. Actually, he probably doesn't care much about the details but it is fun to make decisions on things together.

I am still working on the bridesmaids dresses. I can't find a good picture that I can take to the tailor to copy. I am looking.

I think I am getting a cold. Please let it not be true. Argggg! NO break until Saturday. Not sure I can make it until then. It took all my willpower to get to practice today. I did make it but I missed some poses accidentally. Didn't even notice until I was walking out of the shala. I felt that there was something wrong but couldn't figure it out. Silly me, I guess I was not totally with it today.

I am taking a nap. I am missing a big lunch gathering too because of my extreme fatigue. I don't even have enough energy to go and buy orange juice. I am pathetic but so tired. Please make it stop.

Nap time!

approaching 7PM

So it is approaching 7 PM and I am really contemplating going to bed. Wow, what has happened to me. I did go and have a really great massage with Cat. I am just so drained today.

Maybe I will stay up a bit longer, but not much. Early practice again tomorrow.

I think I have caught the tiredness bug from Cathryn

Woke up this morning at the usual time, 4:30 AM, feeling quite good. I got to practice and only had to wait a few minutes until I started. I actually like a bit of a wait time. I feel it lets me get into the mood, ready, time to prepare. Then I got called in. I was happy because there was enough room between the mats to actually do all the poses without constantly worrying about bumping into your neighbor.

I started out strong, really trying to focus on jump throughs and the proper form for up dog. My wrists have been a bit tender lately. So i am just trying to be more aware. The adjustments I have made are helping and wrist pain has subsided a bit. I actually was doing great until I got to Marichi series. The twists made me feel the not so healthy cookies I ate last night and I got very nauseous. Yuck.

I then got to Budja pidasana, fell on my butt hard. Kind of embarrassing. Kormasana and supta were not too bad did them 2 times. Still can't do the jump back after Budja and kormasana. It will come. Then I got to Garbha pindasana. CRAP! I can get my arms through my legs without too much trouble. Plus today it was hotter, and I was really sweaty so no extra water from the squirt bottle was necessary. The problem does not lay there though. It is with the roll. You have to roll around on your back and I have managed to rub a place on my back raw from doing this. It is so painful. I tried to roll on my back instead of my spine but I just don't have the control. I did it 3 times and only got one or 2 rocks in both times because the roll was just killing my back. I then gave up and did kukutasana and moved on. It was all I could do. I then realized that I had expended all my energy. I had no strength left whatsoever. Trying to do back bends was a joke and then closing. I did however, have a great sivasana. HAHA.

After practice, I could barely lift my arms, I had totally expended all of their energy. I came home and did something I never do. I went back to bed. I actually slept for another 2 hours. I was worried because I never do this. Cathryn, a lovely Irish woman that I have met here had the same experience yesterday and could barely get around and slept most of the day. I believe her sleeping malady has rubbed off on me today. It is not the end of the world. I don't have much going today anyway. Will stay in and relax.

Ciao,
Samantha

"Too much Chipati"

Infamous words from Sherath today after I couldn't stay bound in supta Kormasana. The sad part is that he is totally right. They were the staple of my diet yesterday. I will lay off them today and see if that makes a difference. I also ate dinner last night which i never do and I think it made a difference. I am not going to aver analys it though. It is what it is.

Need a shower and breakfast. Ciao.

to all of those who've nagged before....

who've filtered in and out my door
I dedicate this blog entry

ehem, sorry bad song, bad lyrics. :-)

Anyway, hello to those fellow temporary Mysorieans who are nagging me to write something here (Jill).

In fact I don't really have a lot to say because I have been far too social while here and not getting nearly as much done as I should.

Practice is practice. I had a total bout of ego and not just accepting that I was stopped at supta kurmasana for ages but bitching and complaining over and over about it. Until, one day when I just shut up about it and resigned myself to always be stuck there. Actually did the pose 3 times in practice and for the first time getting my head to the ground, the next day Sherath told me to move on. So now I am sure I will go through the whole thing again with garbha pindasana. Oh the ego is so strong. Why can't we just learn????

I have not blogged in a few days because things have just taken off and I am so busy all the time. I started another chanting class and then Sanskrit too. The classes are all good. I guess I am so happy that yet again I get to start studying another language. I love studying them, even though I am not the best at it and have to study a lot. I still love the journey. I will return to Chinese, probably when I get back to New York, but I just love having the new adventure upon me.

I have been lucky enough in the last month to really speak Italian a lot too. In Italy of course, but then here too. There are a few Italians which makes it fun to speak in multiple languages and keep things fresh in my head.

My roommate last month was from Chile and I really thought that my Spanish had gone out the window because I could not understand anything she said. I always had to switch to English with her. Today, however, I was chatting with a guy from Mexico and I could understand all that he was saying. I am not sure that it was just her dialect that I didn't understand. Good thing, because I was about to get upset that I understood nothing.

We have just learned about 2/3rds of the alphabet in Sanskrit class. I need to study them today and get them down. The class is 3 days a week and goes at a good pace. I should have no trouble with it.

Ok, off to 6main for a snack because I am hungry!!!


Ciao, Ciao.

August 1st 2008, Gokulam, India

Today was a great day. It is a new moon today, which enabled me to sleep in a bit. Then got up did my pranayama practice and had a leisrely breakfast. I moved to my new house yesterday. I am not so find of this house for 2 reasons. 1. My last apartment was really big and nice even with its electricity problems it was still quite nice. This place in in a family's home which lacks privacy and the comforts of walking around in a tank top in the peak of summer in India. Oh well, it is only for 2 weeks so I can survive and it is cheap, $71 for 2 weeks. Then I move into a nicer place with internet and more privacy. So I am happy.

Thomas, a lovely fellow from Nottingham, had the idea of walking around the lake in Mysore today. It was a beautiful day, cloudy with patches of blue sky. Not raining though which it has been doing quite a lot this last 10 days or so. We headed out around 10:30 and walked until 3. It was so nice just to explore.

We stopped for lunch at a wonderful place called the Green Hotel. People say it is expensive, and it is more expensive then other places but the food is simply fantastic. We had Palak curry, dal Palak (palak is spinach), roasted veggie paneer (divine), aloo parath (potato chipati), lime soda (soda water with fresh lime), Briaini and a couple of other things that were equally good. I just can't remember the names. The food is so good here. I have not gotten sick either. I am sure it will happen at some point. It happens to everyone. So far so good for me though.

The Green Hotel is a really nice place, it is a converted palace and all the proceedes go to charity. They are also working to help the plight of the Untouchables here in india. The Hotel trains them new skills like cooking, which is kind of taboo for an Indian to eat food prepared by this caste of people. They are trying to show that they can be trained to do other jobs and nothing bad will happen. The hotel is scheduled to open a coffee shop completely run buy those who were formerly street cleaners. If you are unfamiliar of the plight of these people read Ghandi's Autobiography. It was what was his main objective to change. Still 50 years later it is a problem but there are many groups slowly making progress. Anyway, this hotel is one place doing so. They employ and train them and then put them to work.

The hotel also uses only locally grown fruit and produce and all of the china is made locally too. It is a cool place that I like to go to because I believe that they are at least trying to make changes on how things are done here.

After lunch we went started to walk back to Gokulam. With Thomas as our guide we felt we were in good hands but after a few kilometers we all felt that we were heading in the wrong direction. Except thomas, of course. Finally, Lise asked a passing rickshaw driver the way and we realized that we were quite far away. We had to back track a fair bit. Thomas was convinced that he was going the right way so we just took the leading job out of his hands. We walked through a large field to head back and there were cows there. There are cows everywhere here but today one in particular started to run towards us. Jill totally ran behind me. I said thanks for putting me in front. It was funny, her reaction. It is a bit daunting when a huge cow with horns starts charging you. I don't blame her at all. She was just quicker then me.

We asked another woman who did not speak any English, except to say "go straight" and waved us forward. After about an hour of this, yes we were an hour out of the way our dogs were barking. So we hailed a rickshaw. It cost about $0.70 to get back to Gokulam and it was money well spent.

Then we went over to a friend's place had a light snack for dinner and watched a movie. It is the first TV or video I have watched since being in India. It was nice as I love movies. The movie was "Children of Men". It was very strange and dark but I liked it, I think. I am still pondering that.

I am happily off to bed right now, so very sleepy. It was a great day. I need to walk more often like that. It makes for such a great adventure.